Archive for November, 2007

So much of our world is drug oriented. We understand overall, that without drugs, even chemicals, our world would be full of disease, food sources would be lessened, and conveniences would be limited. As this thesis is written, the touch is embracing plastic keys, rubberized mouse pads, vinyl coated wiring – my elbows pushing steadily on laminate. The rubber tips of my work tools include rubber ear tips on my stethoscope, rubberized tubing to the metal plated bell to listen to patients’ hearts with a plastic cover shield to clean off.

So what is the deal with the lead in the toys? The recent recall included over 405,000 lead contaminate toys from the Chinese manufacturers. Some of the toys recalled were “Duck Family,” Robot 2000, Big Red Wagons, Winnie-the-Pooh spinning products.

To my knowledge, no child has been severely poisoned with these toys, nor injured in a poisoning sense with these lead toys. The greatest majority of lead cases these days are from old paints…pre-1976…when lead was taken out of the USA marketplace of paints. So old paint chips that children eat or ate, especially in older home and apartment buildings renovations, was and are the source. But the biggest reduction in lead overall in the USA was the reduction of lead in gasoline. This essentially stopped the big problem. More discussion of lead poisoning was when under Clinton’s administration, the lead limits were reduced to an absolute low level despite little or no data to support the new change. But even with this new limit in children, few ever have had disease.

Nicotine in itself is a drug, a chemical that has been used obviously in smoking addiction, but in itself is not a bad thing. It has been used in industry in a variety of compounds. Nicotine, however, is the buzz in smoking. Just good old craziness allowed the U.S. to create multi-millionaire attorneys fighting for “our rights” and for those who “didn’t know” cigarettes were bad, yet the USA funds tobacco, the tribes sell tobaccos at reduced prices to entice smoking, and the CDC funds research to explore “the nicotine drug cure,” and it is all still legal. At a recent American Heart Association meeting, research on the new nicotine vaccine has made some promising head roads. One year and five shots later, the vaccine doubled the number of “stopped” addicted smokers from about 6% to 15% over the year. The problem still exists that less than 10%, some say lower, smokers of cigarettes ever stop that consistently try to stop. How many smokers? About 46-50 million in the U.S. and about half of them will try to stop sometime. The vaccine is a potentially great drug to help. The nicotine blocker med which castMD has written on before still helps to, but so far is not necessarily more effective than the patch or the gum. Stopping smoking takes good old will power.

And then there is the date-rape drugged toys. Most of this happened if not all was with the “Aqua Dots” toys. It seems that one of the chemicals in the surrounding coating changes or gets metabolized in the body when eaten. This is an extremely unique and interesting mass-market finding. It is really quite amazing that it was found. The GHB that was found is extremely difficult to measure generally. Many times in the ER, labs can not find it. It is metabolized quickly. Some of the previous day’s internet drug providers (illicit) sold chemicals that would convert to GHB. Some of these chemicals are still passed around and used at “rave parties” and other parties. GHB is a dangerous drug. It is illicit. It can kill you or make you unable to defend, protect, or interact. Thusly, called the date-rate drug. However, it was a prescription drug known as Rohypnol that was one of the original date rape drugs. It is also now illegal in the U.S., but probably can be found in the international markets illegally…not sure of legally however. Always open your own beverage and never leave one sitting around…especially in the club scene.

Did Bonds do it or not? Will the “asterisked” marked Hall of Fame baseball be delegated a fraud by another drug story? Not just another drug related story in recent and past news. Maybe all steroids should just be allowed in all athletics. Tell the athletes the risk, the wrestlers, the baseball players, and the Olympians. All these steroid abuse stories have hit the news just in the past months.

But the problem with that is…this story…

Doping in sports is a problem. But would you give or have someone else give your daughter or son steroids for performance enhancement? Watching little league and junior to senior sports makes me wonder. How far would a parent or caregiver go?

From the 1976 Olympians of East German come the latest stories of abuse, which is being called in a new documentary “The Great Olympic Drug Scandal: Revealed.” The sports “theme plan” developed relied on anabolic steroids. That year, 40 gold medals were placed over East Germany’s team members with a heavy emphasis on women’s swimming events winning all the golds in nearly all the events. Children were given oral tablets and injections, even on the day of competition in the Olympics, untraceable at that time. Coaches were rewarded by success, despite the unethical mark. Some athletes recruited prior to teenage were started on performance enhancement drugs. Doctors were required to sign confidentiality agreements despite the unethical mark.

Some of the athletes had sexual identity and self-worth problems while growing up. Many had obvious gynecological irregularities. In later life, sexual identity was explored and some even had sex changes. But many have been left out of the story lines…How has their lives been altered? How many have died unknown, changed forever by the decay of human value, gross ethical breaches of doctors, and limitless greed of self-flagellating coaches.

Systematic. Documented in abusive performance. Involuntary. Organized to destroy human life. Sidelined by death. Welcome to professional sports and Olympian sports.